Kanye West Faces Lawsuit Over “Life of the Party" Sample

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 07: Kanye West speaks on stage at the "Kanye West and Steven Smith in Conversation with Mark Wilson" at the on November 07, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images for Fast Company)
Kanye West is being sued for a sample used on his André 3000 collaboration, "Life of the Party."

Kanye West is facing a lawsuit over a Boogie Down Productions sample used on his collaboration with André 3000, "Life of the Party." The song is featured on the tracklist for West's 2021 album, Donda.

Notably, BDP leader KRS-One didn't file the lawsuit, but instead the company that owns the rights to their iconic 1986 track “South Bronx." The unnamed company claims Ye and his team reached out to request permission to use the song; however, an agreement on terms was never reached.

HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 28: Kanye West at Milk Studios on June 28, 2016 in Hollywood, California. adidas and Kanye West announce the future of their partnership: adidas + KANYE WEST (Photo by Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images for ADIDAS)

Drake ended up leaking the song prior to the release of Donda, as a part of his beef with Ye at the time. The track was later included as a bonus song on the deluxe edition of the album.

On the leaked version of the song, Ye took shots at Drake in his verse.

“Thought we was the new Abu Dhabi / Told Drake ‘Don’t play with me on GD’ / And he sent that message to everybody / So if I hit you with a ‘WYD’ / You better hit me with, ‘Yes sir, I’m writing everything you need,'” he rapped.

André 3000 disavowed the diss in a statement released after the song was leaked, explaining that he was unaware West dissed Drake with his portion.

“I was inspired by his idea to make a musical tribute to his mom,” the Outkast wrote. “It felt appropriate to me to support the Donda concept by referencing my own mother, who passed away in 2013. We both share that loss. I thought it was a beautiful choice to make a clean album."

He added: “But, unfortunately, I didn’t know that was the plan before I wrote and recorded my verse. It was clear to me that an edited ‘clean’ format of the verse would not work without having the raw, original also available. So, sadly, I had to be omitted from the original album release.”

Check out West's "Life of the Party" below.

[Via]

About The Author
Cole Blake is currently an Editor at HotNewHipHop based out of Brooklyn, New York. He began working at the site as an intern back in 2018 while studying journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s graduated with a bachelor's degree and written extensively about a wide range of topics including pop culture, film & television, politics, video games, sports, and much more. He’s also covered music festivals such as Gov. Ball and Rolling Loud. You can find him publishing work for HNHH from Monday to Wednesday or on weekends. On the sports front, Cole’s a passionate NBA and NFL fan with his favorite teams being the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Lakers. He also roots for the Yankees whenever he finds himself at Yankee Stadium or the Red Storm when in the company of other SJU alumni. His favorite hip-hop artists are billy woods, Earl Sweatshirt, Cam’ron, MIKE, and Mach-Hommy.
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